The fate of the United States Senate might come down to the Keystone State.
Election officials in Pennsylvania are expecting the race to be so close, they’re already warning it could be several days before the final results are known.
But John Fetterman started dusting off his resume once he saw this latest trend.
Turning Pennsylvania red
Republicans have been trying to turn Pennsylvania into a red state for a few decades now.
It’s the giant, elusive prize that always seems so close for the GOP, but always remains just out of reach.
There have been victories, like Pat Toomey’s Senate runs, and Donald Trump’s triumph in 2016.
But the Keystone State remains purple, and in a close election, Democrats almost always seem to wind up with just enough votes for the victory.
However, new numbers out of Pennsylvania may indicate Republicans have finally turned the page.
So far this year, Democrats have added about 21,000 former Republicans to their voter rolls.
Meanwhile, the PA GOP have gained about 57,000 former Democrat voters.
That’s a 36,000 net pick up for Republicans.
Republicans have also added more than 3,000 more new registrants switching from third parties or independents than the Democrats have – moving the GOP advantage up for nearly 40,000.
To put that number in perspective, in 2020, Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump by just 80,555 votes.
According to its Department of State, the Commonwealth has 8.87 million registered voters.
Of that, about 4 million voters are registered as Democrats.
Republicans have about 3.5 million voters registered for its party.
There are 954,000 voters who are independent, and another 374,000 voters are registered with a third party.
According to all the polling out of the state, the GOP is winning the independent vote by wide margins and have significant voter enthusiasm gap advantages.
Dr. Oz vs. Fetterman
But Republicans will need all the help they can get to overcome what’s become almost a tradition of the “late count” coming out of the Philadelphia counties.
Dr. Mehmet Oz survived a bloody GOP primary only to face a huge deficit to current PA Lt. Governor John Fetterman.
However, Fetterman’s support has waned as election day has drawn nearer and Dr. Oz appears to be surging.
A disastrous debate performance, where Fetterman struggled to comprehend questions or form coherent sentences have only renewed questions about his ability to serve following his massive stroke in May.
The hoodie-wearing Lt. Governor had not trailed a single poll in the race until October 26.
Since then, Oz has led in four out of the six surveys to come out of Pennsylvania.
In fact, Oz is now leading the RealClearPolitics average, though it’s only by 0.3-points.
Given all the confusion over Pennsylvania’s ever changing election laws, court rulings, a convoluted mail-in/absentee vote and the close nature of the race, election officials have said it could take more than a week before a winner in this battleground Senate race is revealed.
